KRS-One and DJ Marley Marl

Hip-Hop Lives (Koch)

KRS-One likes to pick fights. Anyone who remembers anything about the Bridge Wars -- the feud between KRS-One's Boogie Down Productions and DJ Marley Marl's Juice Crew featuring MC Shan that spawned a number of classic hip-hop songs in the early Eighties -- knows KRS started it. The Juice Crew's "The Bridge" was simply singing the praises of the Queensbridge neighborhood, not taking bragging rights from the South Bronx as the birthplace of hip-hop. But now, sans Shan, KRS and Marley Marl have decided to put the old rivalry aside and make a combo album. Unfortunately, for a good portion of Hip-Hop Lives, KRS spends too much time resting on his laurels and engendering nostalgia on songs like "I Was There" and "All Skool." Highlighting the good components of hip-hop is admirable, but his earlier records did that too, and overall the rhymes were fresher.

One track that has the same edge as KRS's early BDP stuff is "Kill a Rapper," which questions why authorities never find the killer whenever a rapper -- Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Jam Master Jay, and the newest one, Stack Bundles -- gets murdered. "You wanna get away with murder?/Kill a rapper," goes the chorus. KRS is as sharp as ever when he says, "It seems like whenever a rapper dies, it don't matter/He simply becomes a poster, something to run after/A reason for these kids to pull their guns faster/Trying to emulate and be like dead rappers."

In "Rising to the Top" he points out that he and Marley Marl "could have been gun-strappin', but they wasn't," because they were on some "real" hip-hop, which isn't about violence. Well, maybe the young bucks can still learn a few things from "The Teacha" and Marly Marl after all.

 
  • ALi Hamas 07/04/2007 4:00:00 AM

    KRS1 AND MARLEY MARL would like to forget about the way ROCKWELL NOEL the real producer behind THE BRIDGE WARS, who produced, directed and arranged the most biblical mc ass whipping that ever existed in hip hop with- BEAT YOU DOWN AND TAKING U OUT, KRS1, because these two records represent his confrontation against real emcee�s and real street mofo�s with absolute far superior skills. A fact known to be true. KRS1 Never Went up against Any REAL emcee�s WITH REAL SKILLS Until the ROCKWELL FACTOR WAS POSED�. And yet thru out time I never heard MARLEY MARL pay homage to ROCKWELL NOEL on any of his shows, no throw-backs, nothing� Its as if Marley marl has some kinda of issue with ROCKWELL NOEL� According to current events Rockwell NOEL discovers bootleg releases of these two titles, which cannibalized his sales in which Marley Marl and Aaron Fuchs TUFF CITY MUSIC GROUP IS IMPLICATED!!!!!!!!!!!! As these two records BEAT YOU DOWN AND TAKING U OUT by ROCKWELL NOEL rein Queens-Bridge victorious against KRS1 AND BDP, and fully supported Marley Marl in his down hill efforts against KRS1 during that time as well as celebrated him, as a result of this fact the rap scriptures regarding who won the bridge wars is completely WRONG and needs to be updated and corrected Anyway as this is water under the bridge and almost two decades ago check out the relevance, TAKING U OUT BY ROCKWELL NOEL a times-less masterpiece real New York City hip-hop currently brewing Sometimes you must take two steps back in order to go forward Visit www.myspace.com/rockwellnoel

 

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